When it comes to murder, my compassion doesn't run deep for teens

Thanks to MLive's series on juvenile lifers – written by the
excellent John Barnes - I know that Michigan has more kids serving life
sentences than any other state.

The question inherent in the series is this: Should we keep
young killers in prison their whole lives or should we show mercy and let them
go at some point, presuming that they were too young to know what they were
doing?

I'll answer with another question: Is the victim still dead?
If the answer is yes, then my answer to the first question is yes, also.

I know some will find that hard-hearted, but when it comes
to murder I never, ever find myself worrying about the person who committed it.
I never think, "Gosh, but they were raised in such a terrible environment." I don't
think about their young life squandered, their future cut short. Nor do I
think, "What if it was my son? Wouldn't I want him to get a second chance?"

Instead, I think about the person who was killed and the
future they'll never see. I think about their
spouse, their children, the birthdays
they'll miss, the anniversaries they won't be present for, the graduations
they won't attend, the good in the
world they might have done.

I understand those who see it differently. And even though I
don't necessarily believe it, my head sympathizes with the noble notion that
says teens are young enough to be redeemed.

I just can't make my heart follow suit. It always goes back
to, "How would I feel if it happened to someone I love?" And the answer is, "I'd
want the person responsible to never again draw a free breath."

Most news series have an underlying point of view, albeit
subtle, and if I'm not mistaken the point of view of this series is that maybe
we should give some of these kids a break. And I agree if we're talking about
accessories to murder – someone who was there, drove the car.

But the killers themselves? The quotes from them only made
me madder.

Matt Bentley, for instance, who was 14 when he shot and
killed Betty Bardell, 54, while burglarizing her home, said, "I stood over her
and I spoke to her and I said, 'I'm sorry. I cried a little bit. And then I
left. Have I felt remorse? I felt sorry from the first second."

Dakotah Eliason, who was 16 when he shot his sleeping grandfather in the head, is quoted telling a judge, "If I don't regret this
every day, then I truly am less than human. Then I do deserve to die in prison."

I know that I'm supposed to feel sorry for them because they
seemingly regret what they did, and besides they were just kids. But I just can't
do it. By the time someone is a teenager, they know killing someone is wrong
whether they're old enough to understand the consequences or not.